Is it an eye emergency?
Call 111, free of charge from any phone, to be directed to a service locally that can best meet your needs.
Many patients do not need to attend a hospital emergency department.
111 will guide you to an appropriate service. If they think you need to visit the eye casualty department, they will organise for the department to contact you directly to make sure you get the care you need.
NHS 111 can offer advice 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
James Cook eye casualty opening timings
- 8am to 4pm – Monday to Friday
- 8am to 12noon – weekends and bank holidays
Outside these hours, patients should present to the children and young people’s emergency department or the main accident and emergency department.
General public information
We are a very busy department; you should only attend in an emergency.
We have listed what counts as an eye emergency below.
For any other eye problem, you should call 111 who will be able to advise what you should do.
What is an eye emergency?
Chemical injury
Penetrating injury or eye lid laceration
Severe pain or loss of vision within four weeks of surgery or treatment injection
Sudden onset of double vision
Painful loss of vision if contact lenses normally worn
Sudden loss of vision with or without pain
Pain or loss of vision after glaucoma drainage surgery or corneal transplant surgery at any time in the past
Severe eye lid swelling with fever and loss of vision or double vision
Eye pain keeping you awake at night
Arriving at the eye casualty department
Patients should present to the eye casualty and ring the doorbell where our friendly reception staff will greet you at the door and help book you in.
If it’s taking a while, please bear with us as we might be attending to a patient. We will know you are waiting as the corridor is equipped with a CCTV.
An initial assessment will determine whether you need to be in the eye casualty department.
You will then be triaged and seen accordingly by our nurse practitioners and doctors.
Optometrists and GPs
If a patient needs to be seen due to an eye or sight threatening emergency, they can be referred to our eye casualty department (ECD), please follow our advice below.
Urgent patients should be sent to the eye casualty department at James Cook only after discussing and agreeing with the ophthalmology registrar on-call via our switchboard.
Non-urgent referrals should be emailed to [email protected].
For any other queries, please call the fast track team on 01642 854050.